GEN.KOKSTrading Academy
Trading Foundations · Lesson 08 of 12

Trading Sessions and Market Timing

Identify major FX sessions; Understand session overlaps; Prepare for economic-event volatility.

  • Identify major FX sessions
  • Understand session overlaps
  • Prepare for economic-event volatility
In this lesson
Learning journal
Course outline · Lesson 08 of 12
  1. Understanding Financial Markets
  2. Forex and Currency Pairs
  3. Bid, Ask, Spread, Pips and Points
  4. Candlestick Charts and Timeframes
  5. Market Structure: Trends, Swing Highs and Swing Lows
  6. Support, Resistance and Price Zones
  7. Trendlines and Channels
  8. Trading Sessions and Market Timing
  9. Risk Management and Position Sizing
  10. Trading Psychology and Discipline
  11. Backtesting and Performance Review
  12. Building a Personal Trading Playbook
Observe

Global trading sessions

Forex activity moves through Asia-Pacific, London and New York business hours. Participation and liquidity vary across sessions and instruments.

Daylight-saving changes

London and New York clocks shift seasonally. Convert schedules using the actual date and time zone; do not assume the same local offset year-round.

Session overlap

London–New York overlap often sees increased participation in major FX pairs, though it does not guarantee better trades. Gold, oil and crypto can follow different liquidity patterns.

News and planning

Check an economic calendar for central-bank decisions, inflation and employment data. Spreads and slippage may rise during releases. Plan whether to observe or stay out rather than react impulsively.

Illustrative session windowsTap image to enlarge
Schematic UTC session blocks for Sydney, Tokyo, London and New York. Some cross midnight; exact hours and local conversions must be checked for the date and daylight-saving rules.
Illustration only. Schematic UTC session blocks for Sydney, Tokyo, London and New York. Some cross midnight; exact hours and local conversions must be checked for the date and daylight-saving rules.
Worked example

Worked example

An 8:30 a.m. New York economic release occurs at different West Africa Time depending on whether New York observes daylight saving time. Use a time-zone converter for the exact date.

Practise

Try it yourself

Build a one-week calendar of three important scheduled releases and their accurate local times.

Practise

Independent activity

Write a session plan that identifies instruments to observe, event risks and a no-trade condition.

For your own learning. No upload, submission or approval is required. Use demo or historical practice only.

Download journal

Key terms to review

Trading session, Overlap, Economic calendar, Daylight saving

Self-check · 5 questions

Check your understanding

Answer all five questions, then check the explanations. Retry as often as you wish.

Choose one answer per question, then check your answers. You can retry; scores are not saved.

1. Which city is a major FX session center?
2. Session overlaps may affect
3. Daylight saving time means
4. An economic calendar helps identify
5. Around major news, spreads may

Suggested review target: 4 of 5.

Four out of five is a suggested review target. You can open any lesson regardless of your score.